Saurabh Raj Jain comfortable playing lord Krishna for the third time

After playing Vishnu/Krishna in two TV shows, Saurabh Raj Jain has taken on the role of the flute-playing God for the third time in ‘Mahabharat’, but the actor says he has no qualms about doing it.

The 32-year-old actor feels playing the same role in three TV shows will not limit his acting opportunities in future and has no fear about getting stereotyped.

“No, it won’t stereotype me. It used to happen 20 years ago but not anymore definitely. Previously there was only one channel and one serial, hence the stereotyping… there are so many channels today. You have the liberty,” Saurabh told PTI.

The actor has previously played Vishnu in ‘Jai Shri Krishna’ and ‘Devon Ke Dev…Mahadev’ and he says all the three projects were different.

“My character in ‘Mahabharat’ is a different project from the previous two. After ‘Jai Shri Krishna’, Nikhil Sinha, who was the cinematographer of the show went on and directed ‘Mahadev’ and asked me to be a part of it… I just couldn’t say no,” said Saurabh, who has also starred in non mythological shows like ‘Remix’, ‘Parichay’ and ‘Uttaran’.

‘Mahabharat’, produced by Swastik Productions, has been airing on Star Plus since September last year. The show, which comes almost 20 years after BR Chopra’s super hit magnum opus based on the Hindu epic, has been able to strike the right chord with audience.

Saurabh says he does not fear about being compared to actor Nitish Bharadwaj, who portrayed Lord Krishna in Chopra’s version.

“I have a different perspective to it. The times were different 20 years ago. We have much more technology in terms of computer graphics. In terms of script as well as
characters. In our ‘Mahabharat’ they have made an effort to tell the story in a different manner. I am not competing with anyone here. I only focus on the portraying my character to my best. I have to do good,” he said.

‘Mahabharat’ also stars Shaheer Sheikh as Arjun, Pooja Sharma as Draupadi, Aham Sharma as Karna and Arav Chowdhary as Bhishma. The sets of the show is spread over 10 acres of land in Umargaon in Valsad, Gujarat.

“We all are like a family here since we are away from our homes. It feels like we almost live here. Some of us even have flats in Umargaon. We are currently shooting the sequence in which the war is about to begin and Krishna is making one last attempt to stop the war,” Saurabh said.